


Play date

by Micte



Series: All we are [4]
Category: Jupiter Ascending (2015)
Genre: Children, Family Feels, Gen, Jupiter Ascending Fic Challenge, OC Perspective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-01
Updated: 2016-05-02
Packaged: 2018-06-05 19:33:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6718867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Micte/pseuds/Micte
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Summer afternoons in the park</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Monday

**Author's Note:**

> So this is a result of 2 things: the JA Fic Challenge #12 "Through Another's Eyes" where the prompt was to write a story from the perspective of an outsider and my little series where I write about Jupiter and Caine's family through the years. 
> 
> There are 3 stories in the series before this one and it might help to read those first, in order to understand what the hell is going on here (sorry, not sorry) 
> 
> Remember to go to Fuckyeahjupiterascending's tumblr after may 10 to see the other fics from the challenge and support our writers!

Anita hated being sick. She hated coughing, the runny nose and the feeling of carrying the weight of the world right over her forehead. It didn’t even happen that often, but when it did, it was usually at the least convenient moment, like the beginning of the hottest week of Chicago’s summer.

 

It was awful being sick during such a beautiful time, but taking a week off work had its perks: she could spend more time with Leo and take him to that park she loved in the outskirts of the city.

 

She couldn’t actually play around with him but the two year old didn’t even think twice about ditching his mom by the bench while running to be wild with the other children, so there wasn’t any drama there.

 

Anita let out a relieved sight as soon as she was comfortably sitting and closed her eyes, imagining the sunrays magically curing her as they touched her skin. She was thinking of how practical it would be if such a thing were possible when she heard the howls.

 

She was used to hearing them because Leo was really into Animal Planet and didn’t go anywhere without Doggy (his stuffed dog), but she didn’t expect to see him sitting on the grass, away from the playground, with two other kids, howling while a blonde girl filmed them with a telephone.

 

Shit. She closed her eyes for five seconds and there was already a creep to fight off.

 

“Hey!” Anita called, moving her aching body as fast as she could, “Excuse me? What are you doing?”

 

“Hey,” said the blonde girl unfazed, pointing at Leo, “Is this one yours?”

 

“Yes,” she answered, crossing her arms. There was a little boy with a red baseball cap that looked more or less of Leo’s age and an older girl who was wearing a knitted yellow beanie over her long black hair, even under the blazing sun. The three of them took turns to howl and even lifted their heads to the sky as if there was a moon above them. Anita thought the girl was actually really good at it, but then remembered why she got up in the first place, “Can you stop filming, please?”

 

“Oh, sorry,” said the blonde putting her phone away and getting up. The boys didn’t care and started running around, barking at each other, but the dark-haired girl stood there in silence, watching Anita with an eerie calm that made her feel a shiver going through her spine.

 

Or was her cold getting worse?

 

“I just… I wanted to show their dad, you know?” the blonde pointed at her phone before tapping gently the girl’s head, “I thought they looked cute. Do you mind if I keep it?”

 

Anita looked at her, then the creepy girl, and finally at his boy who for the first time wasn’t being mocked for being over enthusiastic about animals (all her nephews were tiny little assholes).

 

“Yes. Yeah, sure. Are you their nanny?”

 

“I’m their aunt. This is Ceph and that is Max,” she pointed to the two little boys running, “and I’m Kiza.”

 

“Anita,” she said, taking the hand the blonde offered, “and Leo’s my son.”

 

Kiza nodded and then bent to talk to the little girl, “go play with the boys Ceph. And be careful, okay?”

 

Ceph nodded but didn’t move right away. She didn’t let her eyes off Anita until her brother pulled on her dress to make her run with him, “Come and chase us!” he demanded and finally, she went to play.

 

“Aren’t they lovely,” murmured Kiza taking some pictures with her phone, “I can send you everything if you want.”

 

Normally Anita wouldn’t give her number to a stranger, but Kiza looked genuinely charmed by the children and she would also like to show Al that his son wasn’t the only Animal Planet nerd in the making, so she said yes.


	2. Tuesday

Anita and Leo got to the same bench as the day before. Ceph and Max were already there, but some things were different: Max was wearing a blue cap, Ceph’s beanie was red and instead of the overexcited blonde they were standing by a couple of old ladies that were handing them cookies. 

“Max!” yelled her son, running away before she could take his hand. 

“Leo!” she and Max called his name at the same time but his new friend had the upper hand, “Take a cookie!” 

“Isn’t that the cute little boy from the video?” asked one of the women (the one wearing glasses) and Ceph silently nodded while munching on a cookie. 

“Hello,” said Anita, putting one hand on her chest while grasping for air, “and sorry for that.” 

“It’s alright,” said the woman with glasses, smiling. 

“Are you alright?” asked the other woman, the one with the strict-looking face, and Anita shook her head, falling hard on the bench beside her. 

“Is just a cold,” she explained, looking for a tissue in her purse while Max took a cookie out of the package to pass it to Leo who placed it over her knee. 

“Eat mommy.”

“Thank you, sweetheart.” 

The women exchanged a look between them Anita but decided she was too tired to take offence. 

“I’m Anita,” she said, trying to sound friendly over her messed up voice, “Kiza’s not coming today?” she asked to the children. 

“She’s working,” explained the serious woman. 

“In space!” added Max, moving his cookie around as if it were flying and Leo started to do the same. 

Anita was about to ask him if Kiza was an astronaut (because a two year old motivated to answer questions was always funny) when the women in glasses suggested Ceph take the boys to the playground. To her surprise, the girl didn’t need to hear it twice and she waved and coughed as the children walked away, “What are you taking for that? I’m Nino, by the way,” said the same woman smiling. Anita recited the pills she had to take and the serious woman murmured something she didn’t understand. 

Nino hit her softly on the side with her elbow and after a quick unintelligible exchange, the other one muttered, “I’m Aleksa,” with a hint of a foreign accent, “And you’ll need something stronger than that.” 

After a few minutes, Anita learned that the accent was Russian and that the stronger thing was, naturally, Vodka. They were sisters; Maximillian and Cephei (Anita managed to control her reaction, so there was none) were their grandchildren (But you look so young! Oh, thank you!), and their family had a small cleaning business (they gave her a card). 

Nino loved astrology (was your boy born in August? Is that why you called him Leo?), and Aleksa loved to sulk while other people chatted cheerfully (I do not! Caine would be proud! Nino, don’t start.) 

Anita laughed, delighted with their company and disparate personalities. She asked them if they would be back the next day but they told her they had work to do. 

“But bring your boy to play. Somebody will bring our kids to the park for sure!”


	3. Wednesday

Anita and Leo found themselves alone at the bench, looking around for his new friends. 

“Fly! Fly!” 

“There!” Leo pointed behind the playground where a man was running around with a kid on his shoulders. Her son jumped and Anita struggled to follow (but not so much as the day before).

“Fly unko Vady!” yelled Max between laughs while tapping the man’s head. 

“I told you I can’t do that!” he growled, looking too focused on not letting the kid fall to the ground to sound really angry. 

“Then call daddy!” 

“Carry me too!” 

Anita was surprised to see Cephei running happily behind them. She always seemed so serious, even while playing (which, now that she thought about it, made her look a lot like her grandmother, the strict one), and she was disappointed to see her sober up when she noticed they were approaching them. 

Well, more specifically, when she saw her. 

“Vady let me down! Leo’s here!” 

“So that’s your buddy.” 

“Yeah!” 

‘Vady’ put the kid on the ground and waved in Anita’s direction. She waved back discretely and he followed her eyes to find the little girl staring her down with suspicion. 

He looked between them, pursing his lips, amused at the stand-off and called, “Hey, Cece, you wanna fly?” 

The offer changed her instantly; She ran to her uncle and took his hands. The man started spinning, lifting her off the ground and getting the full awe and attention of the two little boys. 

“Unko Vady you said you can’t fly!” 

“Not flying…Spinning!”

“I spin too!” 

Max got closer as soon as Cece, (Thank God she had a cute nickname) was back on the ground and Anita felt someone tugging at her shirt. 

“Can I spin too, mommy?” Leo asked with those big brown eyes of his and she felt bad emotionally for feeling bad physically. 

“I don’t have the strength,” she started coughing and kneeled by his side, “but you can ask Max’s uncle if he doesn’t mind spinning you, if you want.” 

Leo looked nervously in their direction and she could see the consideration of his options happening inside his little head. He finally took a deep breath (she bit her tongue not to ‘aww’ in front of him) and started taking decided steps towards the others. 

The man, whose name was properly pronounced as Vladie, played another twenty minutes carrying, lifting, spinning and rolling around with the children, until he convinced Cece to take them to the swings, so he could take a break. 

He fell on the grass by the tree were Anita sat to watch them. She offered him a bottle of water and he took it, grateful. 

“They are full of energy, huh?” she commented amused and he looked at her with a brief flash of desperation in his eyes. 

“You have no… idea…” he said, arms and legs spread as wide as possible. 

“My sister has three boys. Sometimes I think of putting a helmet on Leo when we invite them over…” 

“I don’t even want to imagine how it would be if my cousin had three boys…” he said, but his eyebrows came together as he did imagine the scenario anyway. Then his shoulders lifted, as if he accepted the obvious, “yeah, I would be dead.” 

She let out a discreet laugh and returned her gazed to the ever-active kids.

“Do their parents work a lot?” she asked out of curiosity but then, when Vladie didn’t answer right away, she added, “I was wondering if they ever came to the park with them… personally I don't have a lot of time to spend with Leo but the hospital gave me a free week so…” 

“What do you do?” 

“I’m a nurse,” she turned and was surprised to find Vladie evaluating her with thoughtful eyes. Now, he wasn’t the only one that did that in the last three days; they were the same eyes Aleksa and Cece used to watch her… wary and alert. Did this family have some kind of trust issues? Or, maybe it was her? Did she look suspicious? Dangerous? 

She was just a mom in the park with her kid. 

Or maybe… was there something else? 

“My cousin works a lot, yeah,” he said finally, sitting up to better watch the kids, who gave up the swings and started running around and barking at each other, “She and her husband… they go on a lot of business trips, so we try to be there. We don’t want the kids to feel alone…” 

“That is really nice,” she said, smiling in understanding, “my mom helps me a lot with Leo too so I know… is not easy. She’s lucky to have you.” 

Vladie smiled too, in a kind way that says ‘yeah, we are on the same boat’ and she also felt a strong ‘lets change subject’ vibe from him.


	4. Thursday

Their park was filled with kids and families, playing, having picnics and, generally, laughing and having a good time.

 

But their bench was empty and nobody else approached it besides them.

 

“I don’t think they’re coming today,” said Anita after an hour of her, sitting and coughing (with less violence than before), and Leo, looking around for his friends (with his anxiety growing by the minute), “do you want to go home and watch a movie?”

 

“But Doggy…” he muttered hopelessly.

 

“What about Doggy?”

 

“I lended it.” he explained, hiding his head on the bench.

 

“To Max?”

 

She saw his hair shake as he nodded. The day before she hadn’t noticed that the toy was gone but she was pretty tired every evening when they got back home. She sighed, “Well, we’ll come back tomorrow, see if they come by, ok?”

 

“Okay.”


	5. Friday

They didn’t come by.

 

It was another beautiful day, but it felt a little less bright with Leo, sitting by her side, arms crossed as he sulked. He looked so much like his father sometimes…

 

“Do you want to go to the swings?”

 

“No.”

 

“What about playing tag with the other kids?”

 

He shook his head.

 

“I want Max… and Cece… and Doggy.”

 

“You shouldn’t have lent it.”

 

“But he’s my friend!”

 

“I know but he’s not here. Wanna go home? Try again tomorrow?”

 

“Can you call him?”

 

“No,” she said first, and then she remembered that Kiza had sent her messages on Monday, so she took out her cellphone and tried to call her (thinking of asking for Max’s mom’s number so they could get Doggy back), but it went to voicemail.

 

“ _Kiza Apini is super busy right now_ ,” said Kiza’s recorded voice, “ _but you can leave a message and she’ll text you when she’s back in orbit. Maybe_.” Anita hung up before the beep.


	6. Saturday

Anita went back to the park alone.

 

She was feeling great and, of course, since life was unfair, now it was Leo who woke up feeling sick after a long night of crying over his lost toy.

 

“This will teach him a lesson,” she had assured Al so he wouldn’t go into his son’s room to try to comfort him for the tenth time.

 

“What? Not to have attachments?” he asked sarcastically. He was clearly not witnessed enough of Leo’s dramas to feel at ease when he son was wailing.

 

“Not to lend his toys,” she said firmly, trying to convince herself too and be strong.

 

It was a hard night and an even harder morning and it was one thing to see her boy upset but if you added a mild cough and fever it was nearly impossible to tell him no.

 

“Can you go pick Doggy?”

 

So Anita dropped Leo at her mother’s and told herself that it would only take her fifteen minutes to go see if the kids were around and if they were not, she would go back to sit with her boy and watch cartoons on her mother’s couch.

 

She would have to go back for work next Monday, so she wanted to spend every minute of the weekend with him.

 

The sun was out but the park was unusually empty. This made it easier to see that, yes, the kids were there. She started walking in their direction: Max was sitting on the grass playing with some figurines while Cece was talking to a woman on the bench. As Anita approached them she saw the woman grabbing up a tablet from her lap, then looking at Cephei and finally, gazing up on her direction.

 

She waved, remembering the weird looks some members of this family had given to her, and tried to look as harmless and friendly as possible.

 

“Hello,” she said when reaching them and Cece turned and ran to her brother, not even taking the time to make her feel uncomfortable. Anita sighed, resigned about the girl’s behavior and extended her hand to the woman in front of her, “I’m Anita, Leo’s mom… mmmh… I don’t know if the kids told you about him…”

 

“They did,” said the woman in a raspy voice, looking away while sliding to the side, leaving some room for Anita. The woman whipped her nose with the back of her sweater and Anita pretended she didn’t notice as she sat, “I’m Jupiter,” she said, red eyes and a tiny forced smile as she extended her hand, “I’m their mom.”

 

“Jupiter…” repeated Anita thinking, ‘ _That explains the names’,_ but saying, “nice to meet you!”

 

They shook hands and turned to watch the kids play. Silence fell between them and Anita didn’t rush to break it because it was evident that Jupiter had been crying. She went trough every piece of information she had about her life to try and think of a question that could be pertinent but wouldn't seem like prying. Did the business trip go wrong? Did she fight with her husband? Anita knew what it was like to have a family where you and your husband have to work and then you don’t have a lot of time to spend with your son, so… maybe she needed someone to talk to?

 

“Where is Leo?” Jupiter’s question took her out of her head.

 

“With my mom. He’s sick”

 

“Oh, sorry.”

 

“He’ll be fine. I actually came here because Leo lent Max his toy…” she turned and found Jupiter looking at her, puzzled, “It's a stuffed dog… it’s name is Doggy. He misses him a lot so he asked me to come and see if you have it.”

 

Jupiter nodded, stared at her children for few seconds and then recognition flashed though her eyes, “Oh yeah, shit… I… I’m afraid we don’t have it anymore.”

 

At first Anita felt angry but then Jupiter explained how someone had broken into their house two days ago and it was really scary because she and her husband had been out of town and the kids where home with their sitter and they took a bunch of stuff and…

 

Jupiter stopped. She had to. She crouched; her elbows rested on her legs and she covered half her face with her hands. Her eyes were going from Max, who was making flying sounds while playing with plastic dinosaurs, to Cephei, who was staring at the boy with the same amount of worry as her mother.

 

Jupiter took a deep breath and Anita put her hand on the woman’s shoulder, “Hey, it’s okay…”

 

“I’m sorry…” Jupiter tried to wipe her tears discretely.

 

“Don’t… your babies are here, right? That’s the most important thing. It’s okay…” she replied, rubbing her shoulder slowly. Jupiter nodded but she looked so miserable that it was getting harder to breath for Anita too. If anything were to happen to Leo… “Don’t worry about the toy,” she said, trying to think of something else instead, “… how are they?”

 

Jupiter took her time to answer.

 

Anita waited.

 

“Fine… I think. Cephei was freaked out but I think Max will repress this memory if he’s lucky…”

 

Her tone made Anita smile. She liked this woman and her weird family and she thought that maybe one day they could become friends; really good friends. But for now she got up, excusing herself to get reunited with her sick son. This talk had made her nervous and all Anita wanted to do was to have the little rascal in her arms to make him feel better. Jupiter apologized again for the toy and Anita told her that it didn’t matter. Leo would understand.

 

Of course, that was a lie because he was two, but right now the rest of the day would undoubtedly be harder for Jupiter than for Anita, so she smiled and waved the kids goodbye.

 

“Leo will come to play tomorrow?” Max question made her turn around.

 

“Maybe. Will you?”

 

Max looked at his mom who nodded as casually as she could. Then he turned to Anita and nodded excitedly too.

 

“See you tomorrow!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And, this is it, for the moment. There is another story coming up for this series but i'll wait to see if I can make it fit the next prompt for the challenge. 
> 
> Thank you all for reading!


End file.
